CFD applications to pressurized thermal shock-related phenomena

加圧熱衝撃関連現象へのCFD適用性

岡垣 百合亜  ; 日引 俊詞*; 柴本 泰照 

Okagaki, Yuria; Hibiki, Takashi*; Shibamoto, Yasuteru

In pressurized water reactor accident scenarios, the injection of water from the ECCS (ECC injection) might induce a PTS, affecting the RPV integrity. Therefore, PTS is a vital research issue in reactor safety, and its analysis is essential for evaluating the integrity of RPVs, which determines the reactor life. The PTS analysis comprises a coupled analysis between thermal-hydraulic and structural analysis. The thermal-hydraulic approach is particularly crucial, and reliable Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations should play a vital role in the future because predicting the temperature gradient of the RPV wall requires data on the transient temperature distribution of the downcomer. Since one-dimensional codes cannot predict the complex three-dimensional flow features during ECC injection, PTS is one reactor safety issue where CFD can benefit from complement evaluations with thermal-hydraulic system analysis codes. This study reviewed the code validation efforts for turbulence models most affecting PTS analysis based on papers published since 2010 on single- and two-phase flow CFD analysis for the experiment on PTS performed in the ROCOM, TOPFLOW, UPTF, and LSTF. The results revealed that in single-phase flow CFD analysis, where knowledge and experience are sufficient, various turbulence models have been considered, and many analyses using LES have been reported. For two-phase flow analysis of air-water conditions, interface capturing/tracking methods were used in addition to two-fluid models. The standard k- and SST k- models were still in the validated phase, and various turbulence models have yet to be fully validated. In the two-phase flow analysis of steam-water conditions, many studies have used two-fluid models and RANS, and NEPTUNE_CFD, in particular, has been reported to show excellent prediction performance based on years of accumulated validation.